Miscellaneous News
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
it feels like a pandora's box has been opened with this balloon affair
Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller has a message for Washington: cut the defense budget "dramatically" and stop making China a bogeyman.
Miller argues the Pentagon budget, now at $816 billion, could be slashed by as much as half.
In an interview with CBS News, former acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller argued the defense budget could be slashed by as much as half and Washington should stop making China a bogeyman. He suggests the military-industrial complex has spiraled to unsustainable levels and encouraged military and political leaders to exaggerate global conflicts.
As a former top officer of the US military, Miller fully understands the connection between the military-industrial complex, the White House and the Pentagon. He is also clearly aware that the unbridled expansion of the US military will trigger tremendous damage to the country as well as its people, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times.
They'll realise at some point that all their high tech is made in China. But demonstrating technological superiority is dangerous as it invites sanctions. Maybe China could promote its space program more, which is a fairly nonthreatening demonstration of technology. But remember, they also thought that Japan only makes cheap low quality stuff. They will learn
Nuclear weapons are for deterrence, not use. If the other side doesn't know you have thousands of bombs, you might as well not have them. If China already has more than a few hundred nukes, it should be made obvious to the Americans
It means that BS claims that China is choosing Saudi Arabia over Iran are BS
The new missile fields in Western China is serving exactly this purpose.
‘Unspeakable botch’: Spain spends €258 million on trains that are too big for its tunnels
Two senior officials from Renfe and Adif have been dismissed over the error.
By • Updated: 10/02/2023
Spain has spent €258 million on that are too big to pass through its rail network’s tunnels.
Since the blunder was exposed by local newspaper El Comercio late last month, two bosses have been fired.
The 31 commuter trains were ordered by in 2020. They are set to replace an ageing fleet in the poorly connected northern autonomous regions of Asturias and Cantabria.
Originally slated for completion in 2024, the much-needed update is now likely to be delayed until at least 2026.
It has also emerged that the manufacturer, Basque-based CAF, flagged the error back in March 2021.
President Miguel Ángel Revilla has called it “an unspeakable botch” adding that “heads must roll", according to Spanish regional newspaper El Diario Montañés.
Who is to blame for ordering the wrong size trains?
Various parties played a part in the debacle, including ’s national rail operator Renfe, rail infrastructure manager Adif, transport manufacturer CAF and the State Agency for Railway Safety (AESF).After granting the manufacturing contract to CAF, Renfe says it provided measurements based on infrastructure specifications provided by Adif. CAF later warned that the specifications may not be correct.
Built in the 19th century, the region’s rail network crosses a mountainous landscape. It has varying tunnel sizes that do not adhere to standardised modern dimensions.
So far, two senior officials have been dismissed - a Renfe rolling stock manager and Adif’s head of inspection and track technology.
Spain’s transport minister Raquel Sanchez says she was only recently made aware of the problem. She has launched an internal audit into who knew about the issue and why it wasn’t raised earlier.
Spain’s Secretary General for Infrastructure, Xavier Flores, has admitted that he was made aware of the issue months ago.
What will happen to the oversized trains?
As the trains were still in the design phase, they have not been manufactured yet.While this minimises the cost of the error, the time-consuming process will need to be repeated, delaying the trains’ construction.
They will now be manufactured using the dimensions of a that already runs on the network for comparison to ensure they fit through the various tunnels. Adif will also update its infrastructure data accordingly to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
France made a similar error in 2014
This is not the first time such a fiasco has taken place. In 2014, French train operator ordered 2,000 regional trains that were too wide for the network’s platforms.Again, the error was caused by data from the infrastructure manager that did not account for older structures.
In this case, the trains were already made and the platforms had to be rebuilt at great cost.